Drones and agriculture
A Parrot Blueglass Drone inspecting a farm
Once not so long ago, the word ‘drone’ was almost exclusively associated with conflict in rugged and remote corners of the world. Those drones were multimillion-dollar equipment affordable only by a handful of nations.
Fortunately, the technology has been miniaturized and moved from theaters of conflict to more peaceful endeavors. Since drones are now handheld lightweight devices, they are being dispatched to help in post-disaster recovery efforts, general photography and varied research.
The beauty of drones lies in doing more than giving an aerial view. Since they can be fitted with different types of cameras and sensors, they can do more than take a cool picture.
Across Africa, drones are being used increasingly in agriculture, the major source of livelihood across the continent.
But before they are tasked with core agricultural tasks, drone find great use in pre-farming activities. Such activities including mapping out and delineating parcels of land, using GPS and similar technologies. In a pilot run in Tanzania, a drone that flew over a 24 km2 range managed to survey 147 km2 on the ground, and was accurate to 2 cm. Since most African farmers are actually smallholders, getting an accurate delineating of their parcels helps in more than one way. It may make it easier to secure a title to the land, thus make it easier to be given credit. It would also avoid unintentional encroachment into others’ lands.
When the crops are already on the field, the drone’s application multiply considerably. At this stage, drones can be used to:
- Take an inventory of the crop
- Assess plant stress, due to water deficiency, or disease etc.
- Spray pesticides
- Apply fertilizers
- Estimate damage where the crops are insured.
Indices and Sensors
Agricultural drones are fitted with a range of sensors and cameras to achieve this. The average agricultural drone will likely be fitted a multispectral imaging camera, to capture visible and non-visible near-infrared light bands. Captured data is then processed through specialized indices to interpret the data in a meaningful way. This cluster of camera allows one to make a visual inspection if they so desire, or conduct a more detailed analysis of the field.
Most commonly, this analysis is done using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. The NDVI essentially measures the level of photosynthetic activity. It is thus used to assess plant density, soil moisture, growth, or pest outbreaks. Drones can be used to detect such outbreaks 10 to 14 days before they are visible to the farmers. Since pesticide-spraying drones outpace a farmer using a knapsack sprayer, using them to both detect and fight infestations helps farmers avert major losses.
A Nitrogen Nutrition Index can also be used to direct the application of fertilizers, also done using drones.
With such advantages, agricultural drones are taking to the sky across Africa.
In Ghana, AcquahMeyer Aviation is leasing out fertilizer and pesticide spraying drones, a model being similarly used in nearby Nigeria by Beat Drone. In Cote d’Ivoire, you could see WeFly Agri or Investiv for agricultural drone expertise.
Tea farmers are using drones in Uganda, as are potato farmers in Kenya.
Yet despite all these apparent benefits, there are countries across the continent where drones are either outrighted prohibited, or regulated to the point of being virtually banned.
By Matengo Chwanya
Africa Global News Publication
